The present variety of peach tree resulted from an on-going program of fruit and nut tree breeding. The purpose of this program is to improve the commercial quality of deciduous fruit and nut varieties, and rootstocks, by creating and releasing promising selections of Prunus, Malus, Punica and Juglans species. To this end we make both controlled and hybrid cross pollinations each year in order to produce seedling populations from which improved progenies are evaluated and selected.
The seedling, ‘Burpeachthirtysix’ was originated by us, and selected from a population of seedlings growing in our experimental orchards which are located near Fowler, Calif. The seedlings, grown on their own roots, were derived from a planting of open pollenated seeds derived from ‘E49.046’ (an un-named, non-patented Burchell seedling), and which is a yellow-fleshed, low acid nectarine. The pollen parent of the new variety is undetermined, but was most likely from another unknown peach inasmuch as the new variety is a peach, and not a nectarine. Fruit was collected and seeds were extracted from peach tree ‘E49.046’ in July of 2001. After a period of stratification, the derived seeds were placed in a greenhouse, by population, and then field planted for tree establishment, and ultimately to exhibit fruit for evaluation. One yellow fleshed peach seedling, which is the present variety, exhibited especially desirable characteristics, and was then designated as ‘M36.031’. This seedling was then marked for subsequent observation. After the 2004 fruiting season, the new variety of peach tree was selected for advanced evaluation and repropagation.